Composting Chick

It was a fun snowy day!! ❄️❄️❄️ I guess this is why you don’t plant your garden before Mother’s Day when you live above 8000 feet. I almost did, but thankfully I got distracted by volunteering in my daughter’s school garden and bin. 
Phew!! 😅

Compost turning should be a Strava workout, right??
It was quite the 🏋️‍♀️. I’m so glad I had my little helper to sort out most of the egg shells so I could crush them up for my potato bed.

Happy Snow Day Everyone! It's so wonderful to have in January. Seems like all is right with the world now. Plus my tomato plant is happy and healthy inside and gazing out at the wintertime.

Hunting for carrots and potatoes and found a big horseradish root. Yum!!

I love this innovation from this 13 yo girl. Go Girl!
Especially because I am a girl who loves to come home from work and chop wood.
💕💕💕

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BD8mvLwkX/?mibextid=wwXIfre

After 13-year-old Ayla Hutchinson watched her mother slice her finger open with a hatchet while splitting kindling, she became determined to find a safer way to cut firewood. The Mighty Girl from Taranaki, New Zealand took on that challenge as a science fair project -- and the result was the Kindling Cracker, a cast iron tool that allows people to split kindling quickly and safely. Today, we're sharing the inspiring story of how this 25-year-old entrepreneur has built her invention into a thriving business which now ships tens of thousands of Kindling Crackers around the world each month!

After Ayla came up with the initial design of the Kindling Cracker for her 8th grade science fair project, her father, Vaughn Hutchinson, helped her build the original prototype. She had such a positive response to her school project that she decided to develop the idea further, stating that “it took a few months or so to get it to the final product." The cast-iron tool uses a built-in axe blade and a safety cage to prevent injuries; just put the wood into the cage and hit it with a hammer to split perfect kindling. Soon, Ayla was winning awards for her invention, including the Regional Finalist Award at the prestigious Google Science Fair.

While her company's growth and the rave reviews her invention receives are exciting, Ayla says that one of her favorite parts of her invention's success is that it's "making a really positive impact in many people’s lives... It makes it easier and safer for everyone to cut kindling which is great to have when you fire up a wood fire, pizza oven, brazier etc. It also gives people with disabilities or physical impairments the freedom to cut their own kindling again." Over the past few years, Ayla has also become a role model for budding young inventors worldwide; as her proud father observes, "The amount of kids she inspires is just awesome."

Ayla's Kindling Cracker is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4azOIxi -- and in a King XL size which is currently on sale for 33% off at https://amzn.to/4pXa1gU

For an excellent book about female innovators and inventors throughout history: "Girls Think of Everything," for readers 8 to 13, at https://www.amightygirl.com/girls-think-of-everything 　

For an inspiring book for tween girls who love to invent and tinker, which includes a variety of hands-on STEM projects, we highly recommend "Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Engineers" for ages 8 to 11 at https://www.amightygirl.com/gutsy-girls-engineers

For two fun picture books about Mighty Girls who love to invent, both for ages 4 to 8, we recommend "Interstellar Cinderella" (https://www.amightygirl.com/interstellar-cinderella) and "Mazie's Amazing Machines" (https://www.amightygirl.com/mazie-s-amazing-machines)

For invention kits and toys to encourage your Mighty Girl's interest in inventing, visit our blog post "Building Her Dreams: Building and Engineering Toys for Mighty Girls," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10430